Game Review (Epic)

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

The ghost of "Stardew Valley" hangs over this game like Jacob Marley and the Three Christmas ghosts do "A Christmas Carol".

I'm about 11 hours in so it's enough to get a feel of the game. It's 3D and above ground it's bright and colourful. I say above ground because I spent more than half my game time in a dark gloomy mine (abandoned ruin) randomly hacking at walls hoping to gather the artefacts and minerals I needed. If there's a detection process to circumvent this it's certainly not obvious.

The start is very SDV - you arrive at a remote village populated mainly by lovable yokels and have to earn a living.

Warning - in comparison to MTAP Stardew Valley is The Bard of Stratford on Avon at his most dramatic. It's a big disappointment from a larger studio that MTAP's characters are so mono dimensional (if not bland to the point of opacity) and nearly mono lingual (a lot of them seem to have only one line or certainly no more than three that they repeat every encounter).

Friendship growth is incredibly slow. I've spent all game focussing on doing missions and talking to people and yet I think I've one one star friendship to show for it. There appears to be no equivalent to Stardew Valley's pub where you could get to know your (alcoholic) neighbours well in the evenings.

Focus moves away from Stardew Valley's farming to, at the outset, being primarily about gathering raw materials and making and selling stuff. An early mission requires you to make a fishing rod and it's worth making a second one for yourself because fishing is a good way to make easy money early in the game.

The primary frustration in the game is that building frequently requires artefacts that are only found in abandoned ruins and for me that involved Terraria amounts of digging to try and find crucial artefacts that are log jamming my way through the game. Mining for artefacts is the dullest part of the game yet it's the one that requires the most time in game. Once you have the pieces to build the improved tech to progress these are also powered by battery artefacts which can't (at the outset) be made or bought anywhere so "Hi Ho, Hi Ho ..."

Artefact mining frequently uncovers discs that can give you better tech if you choose to give them to the tech faction but because key resources are rare expansion tends to be limited to what you need to progress your missions. I've been selectful when chopping down trees to always thin out, not cut down entirely, woods but regrowth appears worryingly slow and the small quantities of wood harvested from the daily replenished drop spots aren't enough to satisfy my industrial need.

Reading the reviews there's apparently a huge degree of content but whether you persevere to unlock it all is questionable. It's easy to forget that SDV was incredibly grindy from late spring through to the end of your first autumn due to the necessity of daily watering crops (so roughly 1/4 of the game) and from Autumn to the end of year two caring for winter crops and all your animals usually took a hefty chunk of each game day. MTAP is never THAT restrictive - except at the beginning where you need to earn enough money to retain access to the mines.

I also had a bad game crash whilst in the second mine (artefact ruin) wiping out that day's progress.

If you're the sort of person who found Stardew Valley a fetid morass of depravity (and for those of us able to discern Concerned Ape's humour it was) and have an indifference to progression and are looking for the PC Game version of Horlicks MTAP scores big. For me bearing in mind in my one sparring match with the defence force they didn't manage to hit me I'm wondering how many of the town I could kill with my boxing gloves and axe on a one day speed run.

Sweet. Sickly sweet.

S.x.

[Adam Strange]

yah man I cant remember the hotkey but there is definitely a scanner that will show you were the artifacts are, the game tells you the first time you go in the mine. Look for the ground being different colours to find the minerals, copper is darker brown, tin is silver and so on

[Radiosity]

"There appears to be no equivalent to Stardew Valley's pub where you could get to know your (alcoholic) neighbours well in the evenings."

There's a bunch of different ways to increase friendship with people outside of gifts and talking, including passive ways that open up later on. And festival days are the best since you get double bonus.

[Comrade Pickles]

Lots of incorrect information here but... thanks.. I guess?

[Owl]

couple of random thoughts :
reputation boosts are doubled during events, and there seems to be a few +rep to all items during said events.
certain folks have +highrep items. stock em up and focus on one person at a time seems to be my current goal.
The game is grindy but incredibly huge and potentially complex. there are easily hundreds of hours of potential gameplay.

...

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Actually guys finding the "F" key to find hidden artefacts was useful - although I suspect that batteries like discs are more random drops.

Also that judging items gave you batteries was a useful discovery.

S.x.

[KnitWit]

A lot of the townsfolk regularly hang out at The Round Table in the evenings.

I got a good 80 hours into this game. It was fun, but still kind of bland compared to Stardew Valley. A lot of the mechanics were pretty half done IMO.

[Xievis]

You press F to use the artifact scanner (pretty meh right off the bat imo, short range, and no item outline). Though, when you are far enough along in the story you can upgrade this. It will lets you keep 3 on scan at once, as well as give you the outline of the item you scanned (once you know what the item looks like you want, you can skip the trash items), as well as more range. Pretty handy. Even more so when you unlock the Mini Drill.

[ozchumba]

Filling commissions for an NPC will also increase your relationship with them, and you can make better furniture and personal items (for your character and the NPCs as gifts) by upgrading your worktable.

Still, early game gifting is more miss than hit, until the character tells you more about themselves (which only happens as you get a better relationship).

Minor hint: There is one item you can buy which "everyone loves", that is a universal gift.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by ozchumba:

Still, early game gifting is more miss than hit, until the character tells you more about themselves (which only happens as you get a better relationship).

Your gift options are also limited in the early game. More are unlocked as story progresses, you get access more of the map and you expand your workshop.

[Bobby]

Better to have edited the header rather than add to the thread. Very misinforming...

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

What part of "Game Review" was misleading ?

S.x.

[Bobby]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

What part of "Game Review" was misleading ?

S.x.

I'm about 11 hours in so it's enough to get a feel of the game. It's 3D and above ground it's bright and colourful. I say above ground because I spent more than half my game time in a dark gloomy mine (abandoned ruin) randomly hacking at walls hoping to gather the artefacts and minerals I needed. If there's a detection process to circumvent this it's certainly not obvious.

Already told to use F. Just edit it. People read the review first and very rarely read the rest of the thread and it throws them off. If you 'find' out anymore, rather than grow a thread just edit it. There's plenty of WIki knowledge out there.

Cheers

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

EDITED


The ghost of "Stardew Valley" hangs over this game like Jacob Marley and the Three Christmas ghosts do "A Christmas Carol".

I'm about 11 hours in so it's enough to get a feel of the game. It's 3D and above ground it's bright and colourful. I say above ground because I spent more than half my game time in a dark gloomy mine (abandoned ruin) randomly hacking at walls hoping to gather the artefacts and minerals I needed. If there's a detection process to circumvent this it's certainly not obvious. EDIT -IT'S THE F KEY THAT DETECTS ARTEFACTS. DISCS ARE RANDOM DROPS THOUGH AND I SUSPECT THE CRITICAL BATTERIES MAY BE TOO.

The start is very SDV - you arrive at a remote village populated mainly by lovable yokels and have to earn a living.

Warning - in comparison to MTAP Stardew Valley is The Bard of Stratford on Avon at his most dramatic. It's a big disappointment from a larger studio that MTAP's characters are so mono dimensional (if not bland to the point of opacity) and nearly mono lingual (a lot of them seem to have only one line or certainly no more than three that they repeat every encounter).

Friendship growth is incredibly slow. I've spent all game focussing on doing missions and talking to people and yet I think I've one one star friendship to show for it. There appears to be no equivalent to Stardew Valley's pub where you could get to know your (alcoholic) neighbours well in the evenings.

Focus moves away from Stardew Valley's farming to, at the outset, being primarily about gathering raw materials and making and selling stuff. An early mission requires you to make a fishing rod and it's worth making a second one for yourself because fishing is a good way to make easy money early in the game.

The primary frustration in the game is that building frequently requires artefacts that are only found in abandoned ruins and for me that involved Terraria amounts of digging to try and find crucial artefacts that are log jamming my way through the game. Mining for artefacts is the dullest part of the game yet it's the one that requires the most time in game. Once you have the pieces to build the improved tech to progress these are also powered by battery artefacts which can't (at the outset) be made or bought anywhere so "Hi Ho, Hi Ho ..."

Artefact mining frequently uncovers discs that can give you better tech if you choose to give them to the tech faction but because key resources are rare expansion tends to be limited to what you need to progress your missions. I've been selectful when chopping down trees to always thin out, not cut down entirely, woods but regrowth appears worryingly slow and the small quantities of wood harvested from the daily replenished drop spots aren't enough to satisfy my industrial need.

Reading the reviews there's apparently a huge degree of content but whether you persevere to unlock it all is questionable. It's easy to forget that SDV was incredibly grindy from late spring through to the end of your first autumn due to the necessity of daily watering crops (so roughly 1/4 of the game) and from Autumn to the end of year two caring for winter crops and all your animals usually took a hefty chunk of each game day. MTAP is never THAT restrictive - except at the beginning where you need to earn enough money to retain access to the mines.

I also had a bad game crash whilst in the second mine (artefact ruin) wiping out that day's progress.

If you're the sort of person who found Stardew Valley a fetid morass of depravity (and for those of us able to discern Concerned Ape's humour it was) and have an indifference to progression and are looking for the PC Game version of Horlicks MTAP scores big. For me bearing in mind in my one sparring match with the defence force they didn't manage to hit me I'm wondering how many of the town I could kill with my boxing gloves and axe on a one day speed run.

Sweet. Sickly sweet.

S.x.

[Bobby]

The MAIN topic is all you edit..... You don't keep adding to the thread -what's the point of that. If you review a game you EDIT the review, otherwise it begins to become a very tedious experience as you keep quoting yourself and then keep editing every quote....man...sign

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Brian - the thread IS the review. I got the game on Epic so can't post a review here.

S.x.